Claudia by Sophie Anderson

In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1392), the "Nun's Priest's Tale" is set Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two.[2] Chaucer probably meant 32 days after March, i.e. May 2,[3] the anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia, which took place in 1381. However, readers apparently misunderstood this line to mean "March 32," i.e April 1.[4] In Chaucer's tale, the vain cock Chauntecler is tricked by a fox.

In 1508, a French poet referred to a poisson d'avril (April fool, literally "April fish"), a possible reference to the holiday.[3] In 1539, Flemish poet Eduard de Dene wrote of a nobleman who sent his servants on foolish errands on April 1.[3] In 1686, John Aubrey referred to the holiday as "Fooles holy day", the first British reference.[3] On April 1, 1698, several people were tricked into going to the Tower of London to "see the Lions washed."[3] The name "April Fools" echoes that of the Feast of Fools, a Medieval holiday held on December 28.[5]

In the Middle Ages, New Year's Day was celebrated on March 25 in most European towns.[6] In some areas of France, New Year's was a week-long holiday ending on April 1.[5] So it is possible that April Fools originated because those who celebrated on January 1 made fun of those who celebrated on other dates.[7] The use of January 1 as New Year's Day was common in France by the mid-sixteenth century,[3] and this date was adopted officially in 1564 by the Edict of Roussillon.

In the eighteenth century the festival was often posited as going back to the time of Noah. According to an English newspaper article published in 1789, the day had its origin when Noah sent his dove off too early, before the waters had receded; he did this on the first day of the Hebrew month that corresponds with April.(Wiki)

It is all nonsense of course. I mean they could not even figure out the damn calendar until two hundred years ago as far as I can discern.

This limey Ricky Gervais appears on Letterman last night and announces that his partner in one of his own Canterbury tales had an issue with the Nativity:

Well, all this talk of frankincense and myrrh and stuff...I mean were these Magi bringing Christmas presents or birthday presents?

....and deliver us from evil through Christ Our Lord, Amen. 

The water is back on my pond. The ducks have been around for a month....a little early. The seagulls have arrived and left for the largest pond on the planet after they huddled on my ice like they were in a penguin movie. Ha

Spring has sprung. My winter coat is put away although I must remember to wash it. The fear of falling on the ice is gone forever it would seem as the north woods will not see such hazards for half a year.

There is no fool like an old fool and what better day than this to celebrate?

And here are some real April Fools.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/04/most_rightwing_bamboozlement_is_a.php#more?ref=fpblg

So now some repubs think that a census is unconstitutional....

Well it is not what you do, it is how you do it.

Damn them all!!!

I got ten questions. I mean tough questions like:

Where do you live?

What is your race?

Are you a US Citizen?

How old are you?

Tough questions.

Took about 2 ½ minutes.

Yeah, 1984 all over again.

The United States Constitution mandates that a census be taken every ten years in order to apportion the number of members of the United States House of Representatives among the several states. Census statistics are also used in order to apportion federal funding for many social and economic programs.

The first U.S. Census was conducted in 1790 by Federal marshals. Census takers went door to door and recorded the name of the head of the household and the number of people in each household. Slaves were enumerated, but only three out of five were counted for apportionment. American Indians, being neither taxed nor considered during apportionment, were not counted in the census. The first census counted 3.9 million people, less than half the population of New York City in 2000; the 2000 census counted over 281 million people. In 1902, Congress established the Census Bureau as a federal agency.

Rush:  I was not wrong, I was just not properly informed.

Rush: We are not a democracy anymore!!

Rush: Our side doesn't do this kind of stuff. It's all made up -- 95 percent of it's made up and it's being done to divert everybody's attention."

HANNITY: All right. Now, so I called into my radio show the other day, goes, "Hannity, the president flew to Iraq over the weekend. And you -- you can't find one nice thing to say about Barack Obama, blah, blah blah."

HANNITY: You know, maybe this is the cynical side of me...

BECK: You know one of my favorite quotes on poverty comes from Benjamin Franklin. I love this quote: "We should make the poor uncomfortable and kick them out of poverty." I love that!

Fox News and Sarah Palin have been heavily promoting a TV show called "Real American Stories: Hosted By Sarah Palin." But, one musician isn't feeling the way they're doing it.LL Cool J is upset at both Fox and Palin for using footage of a 2008 interview in its promotion of the former Alaska governor's upcoming television special."Fox lifted an old interview I gave in 2008 to someone else and are misrepresenting to the public in order to promote Sarah Palins Show. WOW," the rapper tweeted (@LLCoolJ) earlier this week.

Senator Boner: NO YOU CAN'T.  HELL NO YOU CAN'T!!!

Exactly who is the fool here?  We should celebrate the Spring and ignore the evil elves and sinister sprites!!!

From the dark end of the street
To the bright side of the road
We'll be lovers once again
On the bright side of the road

Little darlin', come with me
Won't you help me share my load
From the dark end of the street
To the bright side of the road

And into this life we're born
Baby, sometimes, sometimes we don't know why
And time seems to go by so fast
In the twinkling of an eye

Let's enjoy it while we can
Won't you help me share my love
From the dark end of the street
To the bright side of the road
Again

Into this life we're born
Baby sometimes we don't know why
And time seems to go by so fast
In the twinkling of an eye

Let's enjoy it while we can
Won't you help me sing my song
From the dark end of the street
To the bright side of the road

From the dark end of the street
To the bright side of the road
We'll be lovers once again
On the bright side of the road
We'll be lovers once again on the bright side of the road  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrFxQ5w7FmM&feature=related